Chapter Text
“Wake up!”
Jinyoung stirs from slumber, eyes catching the sunrays slipping through the curtains and the odd scent of pine riddling his nose. He tries to move his limbs, only to feel searing pain shooting throughout his body. He feels his aching limbs only feel pain painting his body.
That’s when he realizes what happened.
It’s the morning after the full moon and his human body was taking the brunt of the pain his wolf form caused.
“Wake up, Bae Jinyoung!”
The command sends Jinyoung jolting up from the bed, head searching for the source of sound. He rises thinking that it’s his new husband waking him--only to find a very grumpy Yoon Jisung with the worst bed hair staring at him blankly.
“Ahh! You’re not Daehwi!” he screams shuffling back into the bed.
Jisung, still marginally unfazed replies, “So I’ve been told.”
“What are you doing in my room?” Jinyoung squawks as he covers himself with his blanket, “And why does your hair look like someone trampled you.”
Jisung stares at Jinyoung before he smacks him on the head causing the werewolf to scramble to massage his head.
“What was that for!?” he protests as he starts kneading his now aching scalp.
“This isn’t your house, genius. It’s mine.”
Jinyoung does a double take and realizes that it’s true. The baby blue walls, dark cedar drawers, and abstract painting of a flower were things he’d never find in his own home.
“Oh, is Daehwi here?”
Jisung, too tired to deal with his needy brother-in-law, rolls his eyes as he stands, “No, Daehwi asked us to take care of you during the full moon because he needed to pack for the both of you. You ended up running around in the forest with your brother.”
Jinyoung doesn’t remember much, but running around and rough housing with his brother would explain why he felt close to death.
“But you do need to wake up because we have to get you to the airport.”
Jinyoung looks at him confused, “Why?”
“It’s your honeymoon, idiot. You and Daehwi are going to LA remember.”
It registers after a few moments of contemplation, but Jinyoung does remember. He and Daehwi are going to spend their honeymoon in LA because Daehwi’s mother couldn’t attend the wedding. Daehwi also hasn’t been back in his hometown for years, and Jinyoung couldn’t resist.
Jinyoung immediately chippers up, momentarily forgetting that his limbs are half past dead. He ends up tripping on his own two feet, landing with a soft thud on the beige carpet.
Jisung looks at him with a blank stare as he watches Jinyoung shimmy his way to a standing position.
Trying to save face, Jinyoung stops squirming and settles with lying down on the floor, “I wanted to lie on your carpet, I forgot I how much I loved it,” he says in a futile attempt of saving his dignity, “Could you help me get up?”
Jisung sighs as he moves to exit the guest room, “You’ve complained about that carpet literally every time you’ve slept over so you can shove your shit back up your mouth and get up yourself.”
With that Jisung slams the door closed before he screams, “MINHYUN! GET UP AND DRIVE YOUR BROTHER!”
Jinyoung doesn’t know who looks worse his brother or, well, his brother. Minhyun has eyebags that can do on for days, a scratch mark that slides across his right cheek, and what looks like a bite mark on his forehead.
Minhyun and Jisung are driving Jinyoung to the airport. Jinyoung has been glancing at his brother’s mangled face for a good portion of the ride as Minhyun begrudgingly drives them to the airport.
“What did I do to you?”
Minhyun grunts in response.
“Daehwi didn’t want any ‘damaged goods’ so his face had to suffer,” Jisung says from the front, his eyes glued to his phone.
“I’m sorry?” Jinyoung tries.
Minhyun grunts in reply.
Initially, it was only Minhyun who was supposed to bring Jinyoung to the airport, but because of how decrepit he ended up, Jisung was forced to come just so that Minhyun wouldn’t crash the car in the middle of the highway.
“Just leave the continent for a while, we all need a break,” Jisung says as he takes his eyes off his phone to look at Jinyoung.
Jinyoung doesn’t know if he feels offended or guilty.
They’re soon at the entrance gate, where they find Daehwi already standing outside the departure gate with two bulging luggage cases.
Jinyoung, with much difficulty and clumsiness, sort of pirouettes onto the ground, grunting and falling on his feet his legs hit the concrete.
“What did you do?”
Jisung comes out of the passenger’s seat to assist his brother-in-law up, “He and Minhyun were idiots and thought it would be a great idea to play around in the woods.”
Daehwi shakes his head as he takes Jinyoung’s arm into his, thanking Jisung and promising to get them something nice from LA.
Daehwi, instead of gingerly holding on to Jinyoung as they went through immigration, decides to ask for a wheelchair instead.
“Daehwi!” he whines after being pushed around for about 5 minutes, “I can walk.”
“No you can’t, you can barely stand without injuring yourself,” Daehwi chastises as they find their way to the waiting area.
Jinyoung moves to stand, but Daehwi pinches his ear in response, “Ow, ow, Daehwi!?”
“Sit down, your body’s going to recuperate during the flight and you’ll be fine when we land, so just sit down for now.”
Jinyoung pouts as he rubs his sore ears, “Aren’t we supposed to be clinging onto each other and being cute because it’s our honeymoon. You haven’t even given me my good-morning-my-favorite-person-in-the-world kiss yet.”
Daehwi laughs, before he’s ducking and placing a sweet kiss on his husband’s lips.
“Good morning my favorite person in the world, what stupid thing did you do yesterday that got you to go geriatric for a day.”
Jinyoung looks bashful as he smiles back at Daehwi, “I don’t know, but apparently Minhyun brought me running. Jisung said that Minhyun was stupid and I was stupid and that he was stupid because he married into a family of stupids.”
Daehwi sighs as he takes a seat beside Jinyoung, entwining their hands together, “That makes two of us.”
Jinyoung pouts at him, “Why are you mean today?”
Daehwi snickers as he fixes Jinyoung’s hair with his fingers. He tucks the stray strands of Jinyoung’s hair back, making it part slightly on his forehead.
Jinyoung revels at the contact. As much as he loved hugging and kissing Daehwi, these small, intimate touches were his favorite. His husband had a talent of making him feel special with just a flick of a finger on the fringe of his hair, or a quick tug at his sleeves.
Daehwi moved with small touches and intimate glances. He threaded Jinyoung’s heart with needle and twine, tangling each string slowly and delicately with careful precision. Daehwi made Jinyoung’s once cold, empty heart whole with persistence and love.
For this Jinyoung couldn’t be more thankful.
“Your just very cute when you’re flustered,” Daehwi says as he leans on Jinyoung’s shoulder, “Mom’s so excited to see you again.”
Jinyoung takes his face away from the warm touches to look at his husband in complete befuddlement. As far as Jinyoung’s concerned, the last time he met Daehwi’s mother was a complete disaster.
Jinyoung last met Mrs. Lee when she visited South Korea a few months back before the wedding. It was the first time they’d personally meet and Jinyoung was understandably nervous.
He knew full well anything relating to Daehwi made him get dumber than usual. So meeting his mother effectively knocked his brain back a few decades of cognitive development, leaving him an unholy mess of half-formed words and incomplete sentences.
Introducing himself was probably the only thing that Jinyoung did properly. After that was a festival of catastrophe that ended with Daehwi’s mother getting drenched in champagne.
This was why Jinyoung was initially apprehensive about meeting Daehwi’s mother again, but he knew he could never deny Daehwi anything, so he just had to prepare himself for Daehwi’s mother hating him from a meter’s distance.
“Daehwi, were we in the same room? The last time we met was a disaster,” Jinyoung says. Daehwi doesn’t move, still leaning on Jinyoung as he snickers into his husband’s sleeve.
“Yes, we were, but she saw how much you cherished me. She liked you, said you were amusing.”
Jinyoung goes red and buries his face in his hands, “Ugh, just don’t get champagne this time.”
Daehwi raises his head to look at Jinyoung, “You know my mom was so worried about you before she came,” he says somberly, “She was so afraid that you were this violent beast that would snap at me at any given moment. But when she saw you and how caring and loving you were, she told me that I made the right choice.”
Though Daehwi is touchy and affectionate, he was rarely sentimental. But Daehwi only ever had his mother, and for her to praise Jinyoung must have been huge relief off of Daehwi’s shoulders.
“You were nervous then too, weren’t you?”
Daehwi nods, as he rests his head on Jinyoung’s shoulder once more.
“I couldn’t handle two of the people I love the most hating each other. I wouldn’t know what to do.”
Jinyoung leans down and kisses Daehwi on the forehead, “You don’t have to. Because even if she hated me, I’d still do everything to convince her that I love you.”
“Your sweet when you need to,” Daehwi says burying his entire face into Jinyoung’s side, the elder wrapping his husband into him more. The angle was slightly awkward, but they didn’t mind.
“Is this enough honeymoon-ish for you?” Daehwi asks with a smile.
Jinyoung smiles big and large as they wait for their flight to board.
They arrive at LAX to pleasurable skies and Jinyoung finding his strength back.
He thanks his advanced recuperation system for turning him from a virtual cripple back to a man in his twenties.
They get off the plane with Jinyoung awkwardly greeting the Korean flight attendant with a “tenk you berry mats,” and Daehwi slapping Jinyoung on the head saying, “They didn’t change nationalities on the plane.”
Daehwi had dedicated the time that they were awake to teach Jinyoung basic English phrases, given that the only two words he knew were “yes” and “good” and the only expression Jinyoung knew was “yes good.” And he’d be damned if he let his husband loose shouting “yes good” to any stranger within speaking distance.
So far, Jinyoung mastered “nice to meet you,” “hello,” and “my name is Jinyoung Bae,” which would have been pointless in the event that the werewolf strayed away from him, but Jinyoung couldn’t go farther than a meter away from Daehwi, so he wasn’t so worried.
They get off without much trouble. Jinyoung now able to walk and the worry of breaking off his spine now gone, has taken to skipping and dragging Daehwi around as they try to exit the airport.
Daehwi just smiles as Jinyoung drags him around, and lets his husband enjoy his renewed vigor and motor abilities.
Once they’re at the arrival bay, Daehwi starts searching the gathered crowd with large banners in different languages at the arrival bay. Jinyoung notices Daehwi’s agitated movement and looks at him with question.
“What’re you looking for?”
Daehwi perks up, “Oh, I forgot to tell you. My neighbor volunteered to pick us up.”
“You’re neighbors awfully nice,” Jinyoung says.
“Yeah, mostly because he had the biggest crush on me since we were kids.”
Jinyoung’s bulge out as he lets go of Daehwi’s hand to look at him pointedly, “WHAT!?”
Daehwi ignores Jinyoung’s expression to continue looking through the crowd of people waiting for them at the bottom of the escalator. Jinyoung is still waiting for Daehwi’s reaction poking him aggressively on the arm.
“Daehwi!?”
Daehwi swats Jinyoung’s hand away before looking at him, “It was a long time ago, and he’s not my type even though he’s an idiot too.”
Jinyoung doesn’t even look offended.
Daehwi, knowing that Jinyoung was appeased for now, continues his search until he finds a large banner reading, “David Lee”
They walk up to the sign to meet a fairly tall man with large cheeks and a mischievous smile that made him look like a chipmunk prepared for winter.
“Okay! Okay!” he hollers as Daehwi and Jinyoung approach him and his large banner. Jinyoung, on the other hand, feels his neck stiffen at the booming voice.
Daehwi looks pleased seeing his old friend, while Jinyoung looks like he just ran into a wall.
“Jaehwan-hyung!” Daehwi screeches as he engulfs the other man in a tight hug, while Jinyoung stands still, glaring dangerously at the other man.
“Wow, you’ve gotten big,” Jaehwan smiles as Daehwi laughs at him, “By the way, why is your friend glaring at me like he’s about to bite me?”
Daehwi turns, finding Jinyoung glowering at Jaehwan with contempt.
“Jinyoung!”
Immediately he loosens his knitted eyebrows and relaxes his shoulders, much to Daehwi’s relief. He then brings Jinyoung to shake hands with Jaehwan.
“Kim Jaehwan, nice to meet you,” he says with a too bright smile.
“Bae Jinyoung, I’m Daehwi’s husband,” he says extending his hand and grasping Jaehwan’s with a too strong grip that makes squeak a bit.
Jinyoung let’s go an Jaehwan shakes his hand of the pain, “Um, Let’s go, the car’s here.”
Daehwi mouths a sorry as they exit the airport.
The car ride to Daehwi's house is tense. With Daehwi sitting in front and Jinyoung forced to watch as the two catch up, the immense taste for blood begins filling Jinyoung’s mind.
"So, you're a werewolf?" Jaehwan says suddenly, breaking his gaze away from the road to flash Jinyoung a smile.
Daehwi internally groaned. Jaehwan was easy to talk to most of the time, but put him in an awkward situation and he goes from smooth talker to smashed pulp within seconds.
"Yes," Jinyoung says in a poor attempt at being civil. Jaehwan is none the wiser.
"So you turn into a wolf, every full moon or something," Jaehwan continues.
Daehwi wants to say stop before they all die in a tragic car accident.
"Yes," comes Jinyoung's quiet voice.
Daehwi thought he would stop, he thought maybe Jaehwan could hear the seething glower from his husband, but…
"So, like, do your clothes tear off and stuff?"
Leave it to Jaehwan to not know when to shut up, and as much as Daehwi wanted to gag him and put his head in the trunk, he knew that this was Jaehwan trying to salvage a bad situation rather than him trying to intentionally piss off a werewolf.
Daehwi knew that Jinyoung disliked sweeping generalizations about supernaturals, and was part of the top ten in the blacklist of things to tell Jinyoung.
"Maybe we can talk about something else?" Jinyoung says suddenly, "I don't like talking about this."
Daehwi looks back suddenly, surprised to find Jinyoung sporting an even expression. His eyes were even and he wasn’t growling, but Daehwi could see his hands desperately holding on the leather seats.
Jaehwan finally sensing the tension, chooses to keep quiet the duration of the ride, avoiding any more conversation about werewolves, or Jinyoung in general.
They arrive without any more near death experiences, slowing down by a quaint red bungalow with a small porch and a great willow hovering over the lot.
Once they're dropped off and Jaehwan was out of earshot, Jinyoung drops their bags by the gate and looks Daehwi straight in the eye.
"I need to punch something."
"Punch the tree."
Immediately, Jinyoung is on the willow, fists and foot on the attack. Daehwi can distinctly hear him mumbling "Jaehwan die," but he ignores it to bring the bags to front door.
Daehwi knocks twice, before the door opens to reveal a short woman with long, willowy black hair and a warm smile.
"Mommy!" He squeals as he hugs her tightly.
"My Daehwi," she coos as she peppers him with kisses. They separate as Mrs. Lee observes Daehwi with a warm smile. That’s when she hears the muffled thumps, her head scanning the lot, only to find Jinyoung trying to maul her willow with his bare hands.
"Honey, why is your husband punching our willow?"
Daehwi laughs awkwardly, "He's just really excited to be here."
"Why is he chanting 'Jaehwan die?'"
"They got so close that they already have an inside joke."
"Okay, well you let him in when he's done...expressing his happiness."
Daehwi takes another look at Jinyoung round housing the tree before he walks into his home.
After Jinyoung's vendetta against the willow tree and hundred apologies to Mrs. Lee later, they settle into Daehwi's childhood room.
Jinyoung forgets his anger in lieu of exploring every inch of Daehwi's room.
Jinyoung gravitates towards the keyboard, with large binders filled with lyrics and compositions lining the shelf beside it. He spends a prolonged amount of time fiddling through binders of half-made songs, incomplete compositions, and fully formed tunes, as Daehwi watches his him sift through his old work, smiling as Jinyoung goes through each binder with a warm smile.
"Hey, thank you," Daehwi says after what seems like hours.
Jinyoung stops looking through a cute song about finding love to look at his husband with a furrow.
"For earlier. Thanks for not killing Jaehwan," Daehwi continues with a smile, "His mouth runs off when he’s nervous."
Jinyoung smiles back, "I honestly wanted to bite his head off, but one look at you and I knew I had to keep my cool.”
Daehwi gets off the bed to wrap his arms around Jinyoung, “I’m so glad you’re my husband,” he murmurs as he nuzzles into the werewolf’s nape.
“I’m sorry I tried to kill your tree.”
“It’s okay, I told mom you were just excited.”
Jinyoung sports a smile as he raises his head to sneak a quick peck, but was interrupted by Mrs. Lee’s voice echoing from downstairs.
“Boys! Dinner’s ready!”
Jinyoung grumbles as Daehwi gets to his feet, he follows soon after. They amble down to the living room before they a soft knock comes from the front door.
Mrs. Lee comes out of the kitchen with a basket of fried chicken, placing it on the table and looking at Daehwi “That must be the others. Sweetie, could you get the door?”
Daehwi pauses mid-step looking at his mother, “The others?”
“You said that Jinyoung got along well with Jaehwan, so I asked him to eat dinner with us.”
Daehwi feels the impending massacre of one Kim Jaehwan, while Jinyoung feels the need to bludgeon another tree.
There’s another knock.
“Daehwi, the door!” Mrs. Lee hollers as she disappears back into the kitchen.
Daehwi turns to Jinyoung and bows thrice in apology, his husband trying his best to not look royally pissed about the dinner ahead.
Daehwi slowly approaches the door, and with a deep breath pries it open.
“Okay! Okay!”
Jinyoung fears this is the sound he’ll hear when he dies—the sound of impending doom and eternal damnation.
Jaehwan, thankfully, is not alone. He brought in two of Daehwi’s childhood friends who haven’t seen Daehwi since he left for South Korea.
At first glance, Jinyoung doesn’t know whom he dislikes more. The one with the broad shoulders and the soft pink hair or the one with the sleekly defined cheekbones and the three moles on his chin.
But then Jaehwan starts laughing, and Jinyoung feels the molars of his teeth crackle at the shrill noise that comes out of the boy’s mouth. He didn’t know something so ungodly could be produced by a human being, but then again, he doesn’t really think of Jaehwan as human.
Jinyoung decides that among Daehwi’s friends, he dislikes Jaehwan the most.
But that doesn’t stop Jinyoung from setting Daehwi aside once the other three are seated at the dining table. He drags Daehwi into the small living room adjacent to the dining area and stands in between him and his view of his friends.
“Did you live near a modeling agency growing up?” Jinyoung asks.
Daehwi looks at him puzzled, his head bobbing to the side and his mouth instinctively going into a pout.
“Your friends look like they were dragged out of a photoshoot,” Jinyoung says sternly before pausing, “Except Jaehwan, he looks like a forest animal.”
Daehwi furrows his eyebrows, “Jinyoung, if you haven’t forgotten, you’re half a forest animal.”
“Yes, but I look cool. He looks like he gathers pine cones for a living.”
“I knew I shouldn’t have said Jaehwan had a crush on me, but the other two are harmless,” Daehwi sighs as he covers his face with his hand, “I didn’t know you’d get this jealous.”
Jinyoung pauses, trying to even out his expression. Daehwi has mentioned many times that his jealousy could get overboard, so he often tried not to show it. But this was supposed to be their honeymoon, not show-off-all-of-Daehwi’s-good-looking-friends-a-chipmunk-day day.
“I’m not jealous.”
Daehwi crosses his arms and gives him the look.
“I’m not!” he says waving his hands in the air.
Daehwi remains unfazed.
Jinyoung grunts, “Okay, maybe a little.”
Daehwi doesn’t move, his eyes still laser like in accusation, and Jinyoung tries to match only to remember how Daehwi has the resilience of a werewolf during full moon on steroids.
Eventually he lets up, “Okay, I’m super jealous, Extremely jealous. I’m jealousy at the maximum,” Jinyoung spits, “But I can’t help it, it’s part of my territorial nature. I don’t let people touch what’s mine.”
Seeing that Daehwi remains cold to his admission, Jinyoung tries the most effective way to get Daehwi to forgive him.
Jinyoung pouts, “Hug me.”
It doesn’t take two seconds for Daehwi’s cold gaze to melt into a fond smile, spreading his arms to take his husband into his arms.
“I know. I understand, but there’s no need to worry, okay,” Daehwi says.
He then disengages from the hug and looks up at Jinyoung, “So stop being jealous.”
Jinyoung nods, causing Daehwi to smile and give him a peck on the cheek.
“Also, stop calling Jaehwan a chipmunk.”
Jinyoung’s about to protest, but Daehwi’s pinches him on the side.
“Ow, yes fine. I’ll stop,” he pushes Daehwi away to escape anymore attacks to his ribs. Daehwi just laughs and starts walking to the dining room. But before he can cross the threshold, he stops and looks back at Jinyoung.
“For the record, I’m not yours Bae Jinyoung,” he says with a glint in his eyes, “You are mine.”
With that he turns back and glides into the warmth of his friend’s company and the fried chicken, leaving Jinyoung flustered and warm.
He chose his husband well.